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Half of US Doctors Routinely Prescribe Placebos
- ivankirigin 18y agoThis idea is related and hilarious http://inventedbyamother.com/ http://inventedbyamother.com/
- streety 18y agoDoes it have FDA approval?
- ivankirigin 18y agoI'm not sure about the details. I would imagine because it contains no narcotics, it wouldn't be necessary to test responses. But considering how fucked the FDA approval process is, my intuition doesn't mean much.
- jwilliams 18y agoEven better. It doesn't have FDA disapproval.
- jbum 18y ago...and the ones that don't are doing their patients a disservice. Placebos are safe, and can be surprisingly effective.
- jwilliams 18y agoMore people should demand placebos from their doctor... cough Anyway. I found this line from the article amusing: Only 5 percent described the treatment to patients as “a placebo.”
- dejb 18y agoYes so did I. To me it means the title of the article was speculative at best. Inaccurate is another word one could use.
- mattjaynes 18y agoGreat point. Radiolab had a great episode on the placebo effect and how powerful it can be. It's a great listen if you have time: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/18 http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/18
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- gruseom 18y ago"Antibiotics and sedatives" don't sound like placebos to me.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoTragically, antibiotics are often used as a placebo. For example, prescribing an antibiotic is a good way to get the flu patient to leave your office in a happy mood, secure in the knowledge that Something Is Being Done, even though antibiotics are useless against flu. That's a big problem, because sugar pills don't breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria. There's a serious argument to be made for homeopathy here: homeopathic treatments don't have side effects.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y agohomeopathic treatments don't have side effects. Indeed. Most of us could stand to drink more water anyways.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoActually, now that you mention it, I suppose it is possible to overdose on homeopathics. Moreover, there is a significant side effect: A financial one. That's why I prefer to advocate DIY homeopathics. If yours don't seem to be working, try making them by the light of the full moon. No kidding.
- ars 18y agoIt would be pretty hard to overdose on homeopathics. They are basically sugar, and they are tiny. Add in the cost, and it would cost a fortune to overdose. You could probably clean out an entire store's inventory and not overdose.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoApparently I left out a necessary ;) on that sentence. ;)
- iamelgringo 18y agoI see this all the time. (I'm an ER nurse by night, computer nerd by day). The problem is that patients frequently demand antibiotics for infections that don't require them and patients demand XRays for injuries that are obviously not fractures. If someone is going to take little Jonny to the ER at 3 in the morning because the child has a fever and a cough, the last thing that the parents want to hear is "give him Tylenol, push fluids, plenty of rest..." Plain and simple, if they're going through the trouble to see the doctor, they want a prescription. So, instead of spending 20 minutes explaining to the parents why little Jonny doesn't need a prescription, they spend 5 minutes with them, prescribe an antibiotic that they _might_ but probably don't need, and run off to see the next patient.
- Angostura 18y agoErr, excuse me. I've taken my daughter to A&E (the UK equivalent of ER) a couple of time in her life due to high fever and a very nasty hacking cough. On both occassions, they prescribed ibuprofen, liquids and on one occassion put her in a cooling bath to reduce temperature. On both occassions I was satisfied: I was pretty sure that it was a viral infection, but with a temperature that high, I wanted to be sure. I would be bloody annoyed if the docs prescribed unnecessary antibiotics. Not all patients are dense and doctors shouldn't treat us as if we are - that just spreads ignorance. Actually, we are lucky over here now. NHS is a really very good phone consulting service. You phone up with a sick child and they take you through a very VERY detailed list of symptoms and questions. This phone service has saved me a couple of night trips to the hospital since it started.
- iamelgringo 18y agoI'm sorry if I came across as condescending. That was not my intention at all. I went to an Urgent Care 2 years ago, I waited for 2 hours, only to be told that I should take Tylenol, get rest and drink fluids. I was very upset. I don't think those expectations are the fault of the patient. It's a natural extension of our drive-thru, fast-food. At very least, I've found those expectations to be common in most of the 20+ hospitals/ER's that I've worked in over the past 15 years. I field at least 3-4 calls a night asking for advice. I am not allowed to give any advice over the phone because of liability reasons. People's only option in the middle of the night is to go to the ER and wait their turn which creates frustration and high expectations. It's a bad system, not bad patients.
- bprater 18y agoWhenever I get a new prescription from a doctor, I jump online and do my research about it. I know there are several brand names for placebo drugs, but would it be obvious if a doctor prescribed one to me or my family?
- Raphael 18y agoAfraid it might work?
- wumi 18y agowhen I had bronchitis, my doctor told me "I can give you antibiotics and it will go away in three weeks. You can go without antibiotics and it will still go away in three weeks. What do you want to do?" I declined.